10/27/20
There’s
no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter. ― Barack Obama
NATIONAL ISSUES
STOP TRUMP
FROM GUTTING THE CIVIL SERVICE:
We must remain alert not only to the “big” stories, like McConnell’s frantic
effort to confirm Amy Coney Barrett, but also to the smaller but perhaps no
less consequential ones; invoking “performance standards,” Trump claims it
necessary to create “an exception to the competitive hiring rules and
examinations for career positions in the Federal service of a confidential,
policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character” and signed
an Executive Order to that effect last week: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-creating-schedule-f-excepted-service/
The merit-based civil service system, in place since 1883, provided one of the
few routes to upward mobility for many; the creation of new “Schedule F”
employees allows the easy appointment of loyal political cronies (and the easy
firing of the “disloyal”) and, importantly, shields political appointees from
an incoming administration by protecting them from firing on the basis of
political affiliation: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/522339-trump-order-strips-workplace-protections-from-civil-servants and https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-federal-civil-service/2020/10/23/02fbf05c-1549-11eb-ba42-ec6a580836ed_story.html and
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-executive-order-civil-service-biden-election-schedule-f-b1255692.html
Whatever the outcome of November’s election, Trump will remain in
power until January and will, undoubtedly, do as much damage as he can; we must
monitor what he does in this interregnum.
Let’s raise this issue with our MoCs and ask what they can do to stop
this latest assault on our democracy. To protest this change in the civil service, let’s contact the Office
of Personnel Management: 1-800-877-8339 or 1900 E St, NW, Washington DC 20415.
USPS BOARD REJECTS REPORT ON DEJOY: Last week, at the behest of Congress, an
inspector general at the United States Postal Service issued a report examining
the effects of Trump loyalist and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s changes to
the postal service; the report concluded that these changes had resulted in
“significant negative service impacts across the country,”: https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2020/20-292-R21.pdf
Undaunted, the USPS Board of Governors, composed of Trump appointees, rejected
the report’s conclusions: https://billmoyers.com/story/scramble-at-the-white-house/
DeJoy has committed to halt these changes but only until after the
election. Looks like we need, once
again, to contact the USPS Board of Governors and demand a permanent end to
DeJoy’s effort to destroy the postal service: USPS Board of Governors Robert
Duncan: mduncan@inezdepositbank.com;
John Barger: barger.jm@gmail.com;
Ron Bloom: ron.bloom@brookfield.com;
Roman Martinez: roman@rmiv.com;
Donald Moak: lee.moak@moakgroup.com;
Wiliam Zollers: directoraccessmailbox@cigna.com
CALL OUT
MIKE PENCE FOR PUTTING THE NATION’S HEALTH AT RISK BY REFUSING TO OBSERVE CDC
PROTOCOLS: “At least five people
in Vice President Mike Pence's orbit have tested positive for coronavirus in
recent days, including chief of staff Marc Short, close aide Zach Bauer and
outside adviser Marty Obst, sources told CNN. There are concerns that more
people within Pence's inner circle will test positive in the coming days, a
source said. "They're scared," the source said of staffers in the
vice president's office” https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/10/24/politics/mac-short-coronavirus-positive-test/index.html Pence,
the head of the Covid team has at least 5 of his team sick yet he is still on
the campaign trail. They have done a terrible job of keeping
themselves and us well. Let’s publicly call out Pence for putting his own
political gain ahead of the nation’s health by commenting on his Twitter
(@Mike_Pence) and Facebook
pages. Let’s also encourage all our friends
to wear a mask, wash hands, social distance and VOTE THEM OUT.
DARK MONEY AND THE FEDERAL COURTS: In these videos, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
(D-RI) explains how dark money is influencing which judges get appointed to our
federal courts and the Supreme Court, and also how they rule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjcXVKg43qY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5-Snk_thAs .
This is corruption, pure and simple. In this law review article, https://harvardjol.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2020/05/Sen.-Whitehouse_Dark-Money.pdf,
Senator Whitehouse explains the problem further and offers legislative and
policy remedies. Let’s share his article with our Senators, with the
Chair of the Committee on Codes of Conduct for the federal courts, and with
Chief Justice Roberts. Let’s tell them all that we expect impartial judges and
basic fairness in our federal courts, including the Supreme Court, and we want
them to implement Senator Whitehouse’s commonsense policies: 1) Supreme
Court (Chief Justice Roberts): https://www.supremecourt.gov/contact/contactus.aspx,
2) our US Senators, and 3) Federal Courts: Chair, Committee on Codes of
Conduct, c/o General Counsel, Administrative Office of the United States Court,
Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, One Columbus Circle, NE,
Washington, DC 20544
MOTIONAL
SUPPORT FOR HEALTHCARE WORKERS IMPACTED BY THE PANDEMIC: As COVID cases rise, stress among healthcare
workers is rising as well. The Emotional PPE Project offers free mental health
assistance to healthcare workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Experienced,
licensed therapists are volunteering their time and expertise. Let’s
look into this for ourselves and others who may need it: https://emotionalppe.org/
FIGHT BACK
AGAINST GOP COURT STACKING: As
Amy Barrett’s confirmation is rushed through the Senate, cementing a
conservative Supreme Court majority, Mc Connell boasts we “won’t be able to do
much about this for a long time to come”. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/gop-bets-democrats-won-t-expand-supreme-court-progressives-say-n1244721 We
still have a chance to prove him wrong by restructuring our judicial systems
and institutions to more fairly reflect the will of the people. In
“Off-Balance: Five Strategies for a Judiciary that Supports Democracy”,
Roosevelt Fellow Todd N. Tucker explores a menu of options for policymakers,
including: 1) Adding justices to the bench through Court expansion; 2) Removing
justices through impeachment; 3) Changing the jurisdiction of the Court; 4)
Ignoring or overriding Court decisions; and 5) Rewriting the Constitution to
allow term limits, elect justices, or eliminate judicial review. We can find
the highlights of this judicial reform strategy here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1320781530764136449.html
and read the full report here: https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/off-balance-strategies-for-judiciary-that-supports-democracy/ then demand our MoCs make judicial reform a
priority in the next session of Congress.
TEXTILE CRAFTERS: Tiny Pricks is a public art
project created and curated by Diana Weymar. Contributors from around the world
are stitching Donald Trump’s words into textiles, creating the material record
of his presidency and of the movement against it. It is not too late for us to create a piece and take part: https://www.tinypricksproject.com/participate/
POSTCARDING OPPORTUNITIES: From one
of our own: Here are this week's
postcarding write-ups. Please use/share/distribute widely! Keep speaking out
and holding those in power accountable—and make sure that you, and those around
you who can, VOTE! Let’s check this out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ke2J18eH2_sJdY0bcJ0eMugtNfRxz0h93gmWlkMuQHc/edit?usp=sharing
ELECTION/VOTING
ELECTION - GET OUT THE VOTE (GOTV)
POSTCARDERS: LAST CALL! If we volunteer to
write postcards to get out the vote, Wednesday is the last day we can mail them
and hope for their arrival before Election Day. Let's count up our remaining
postcards and stamps and request that number of addresses from
Postcards To Voters right
now.
CALL/TEXT VOTERS. We still have opportunities to reach voters
via phone and text. We can check with our state and local campaigns to see if
they need our help. Additionally we can check: a) Southern Poverty
Law Center; and b) Sister District Project. Let's work together to
reach as many voters as we can.
MOBILIZE THE LATINO
VOTE:
"There are only nine days until Election Day, and we still need to
mobilize millions of Latinx voters all across the country. With your help we’ve
registered more than 560,000 voters this election cycle -- thank
you!" To help Voto Latino reach their goal of mobilizing 3.7
million Latino voters, we can donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/vl-millions
NATIONAL VOTER
ASSISTANCE HOTLINE IS SEEKING NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING VOLUNTEERS: If we, or someone we know, speaks fluent Apache,
Arabic, Cantonese, Creole, French, Hindi, Hmong, Korean, Mandarin, Navajo, Punjabi,
Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, or Vietnamese, the Biden campaign is asking for our
help assisting voters. We can sign up here: https://go.joebiden.com/page/s/Voter-Protection-National-Hotline
VOTER PROTECTION PHONE
BANK: The NC Dems Voter Protection Team is phone
banking to make critical voter protection calls twice a day every day. We can
learn more and join them here: https://www.mobilize.us/nc2020victory/event/314753/
SWING LEFT PHONE BANKING: Swing Left is still making calls and we can
join them. We can find more info here: https://swingleft.org/p/phone-bank
PHONEBANKING WITH
CHICAGO INDIVISIBLE: Indivisible
Chicago is offering one last "Phonebanking 101" class (Wednesday, October 28, 2020 5:15 PM - 6:00 PM
CT) for folks who need to be walked through the WHOLE process.
It's a step-by-step tutorial for the well-intentioned but introverted and/or
not politically active. It will be followed by a working phone bank. We can
sign up here. (h/t)
TEXT WITH THE POOR
PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN: The Poor People’s Campaign is hosting
We Must Do M.O.R.E text bank training
to learn how to text poor and low-income infrequent voters in key states where
their vote can have the greatest impact.
Let’s click her to sign up: https://vote.poorpeoplescampaign.org/#phone_bank
RIDES FOR NAVAHO
VOTERS:
Navajo voters in the southwest have been
tragically underserved by our federal government. Many Navajo voters live 50
miles or more from their polling places. Vote
America is organizing rides to the polls for Navajo voters. To do this, we
need to raise $26,000 to pay for transportation, food & water. Let’s
help if we are able: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voteamerica-2020-twitterrezrideap10.25.20
HELP BOOST LOW FLORIDA TURNOUT: Florida is a key state
this election, but turnout in both Broward and Miami Dade counties is NOT
where we need it to be. We can join with Swing Left Greater Boston to turn
things around when we sign up for their two efforts 1) FL GOTV & BALLOT
CHASE PHONE BANKS - We will call Dems who haven’t returned their ballots
yet. We can check out this calendar for the most up-to-date English,
Spanish, and Haitian Creole phone banks: https://swingleftboston.org/calendar/category/activity-type/phone-calls/month/?tribe-bar-search=Florida and 2) FL BALLOT CURE - We can help Dem
voters fix their rejected ballots and get their vote counted. Spanish and
Haitian Creole-speaking volunteers are especially needed! We can sign up here: Mondays, 5-8
pm, https://www.mobilize.us/swingleftboston/event/327645/, Tuesdays, 5-8
pm, https://www.mobilize.us/swingleftboston/event/318422/, and Thursdays, 5-8
pm, https://www.mobilize.us/swingleftboston/event/311083
ELECTION – SUPPORT CANDIDATES
POSTCARDS TO VOTERS: At press time, Postcards To Voters continues to
write for great campaigns like Jaime Harrison for Senate in SC, Hillary
Scholten for Congress in MI (Justin Amash' seat), and Abby Finkenauer for
Congress in IA (postcardstovoters.org) Let's
push as hard as we can in these last few days of being able to write and mail
postcards for the November 3rd election. If our post office is out of pre-stamped
postcards, we can cut cardstock into 4x6 cards and can use whatever postage we
have that adds up to at least 35 cents per card.
READY-MADE TWEETS FOR
ALL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES: Postcards for America have
created ready-made Tweets & Facebook Posts to share for every single
Democratic Candidate! Each includes a
Postcard w/ their photo, website link, Twitter & where to donate. Let’s
check this out and use it: https://www.postcardsforamerica.com/all-dem-candidates-postcards-tweets--posts.html
DEFEAT SUSAN COLLINS AND TRUMP BY GETTING OUT THE MAINE
VOTE: As
we look for the best places to put our final efforts, we can consider Maine.
First, Sen. Susan Collins could have swayed the vote on two unqualified
extremist Supreme Court Justices. It is time for her to go. Also, Maine may
give Biden to Electoral College votes he needs to wins. We can check
out Swing Left Boston for several ways we can help turn Maine Blue, and defeat
Collins and Trump together: https://swingleftboston.org/calendar/category/super_state/maine-events/
and https://swingleftboston.org/calendar/online-middlesex-and-worcester-district-virtual-phone-bank-11/
ELECTION - REGISTERING VOTERS
VOTER REGISTRATION
DEADLINES: Voting guidelines vary by
state. In many states the deadline to register to vote has passed, but not
all. Let’s check here to see if we can still register and help others
register, too: https://www.vote.org/voter-registration-deadlines/
ELECTION - OTHER
ATTENTION OVERSEAS
VOTERS:
"If you voted in the 2020 General Election, Democrats Abroad would like to
hear from you about your voting experience. Please participate in this quick
survey as it will help us understand voting issues and trends we need to work
on for you." We can fill out the survey here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfi24-16JmPXL1nqBlX_-kAjyC7L4vV3oHTmgfOTaNSGLzzZA/viewform
TAKE OR ANALYZE PHOTOS OF PRECINCT RESULTS TO PROTECT
THE VOTE: With so much at stake in the next election, many of our votes need
protection from hacking and interference with voting equipment. If we are
looking for ways to help defend election integrity, we can check out the
Protect Our Votes (POV) https://www.protectourvotes.com/ Photo
Finish project, which will publish and compare election night precinct tallies
with the final results. At the end of election days, precincts print their
results on poll tapes and post them on doors or windows for all to see. To help
preserve the integrity of these results, we can take their photos, then post
them on POV website. If we don’t take photos, we can still help by comparing
these pictures with the final counts. POV will publish this info and any
significant differences on their Photo Finish Results page. This kind of
transparency will help shine a bright light on possible tampering. We can
sign up to photograph poll tapes or to compare them to the final results here,
then share this information with our friends on social media: https://www.protectourvotes.com/photo-finish/
LEARN TO SAFELY INTERVENE WHEN VOTERS ARE HARASSED AT
THE POLLS: As Trump stirs up his followers to intimidate voters on Election Day,
there is something we can do to help make sure that people can vote safely. Hollaback has resources to help us
intervene safely and effectively when we witness harassment at the polls. We
can check out their materials and then, if we choose, signup for their free
online Bystander Intervention Training
Workshop, to show us how to safely intervene when we see voter harassment
at the polls. We’ll learn about voter rights, the 5 C’s of bystander
intervention: distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct, and staying safe
while intervening. After that, we will get time to practice. If we cannot
attend the workshop, we can learn more about these strategies. We can learn more, find additional
resources for voter protection, and sign up here: https://www.ihollaback.org/bystander-intervention-to-stop-voter-harassment-at-the-polls
STATE/LOCAL
ISSUES
FL: PROBLEM BALLOTS: Florida is voting by
mail for the first time due to COVID. It is being reported that Miami Dade County
may have up to 23% of early ballots being REJECTED for missing signatures! Other
counties are experiencing similar problems.
Let’s click here to check on our
ballot and fix it if was rejected: http://miamidadedems.org/cure
NY: NYC VOTER SUPPRESSION?: The NY Times has
published the latest appalling account of nepotism, patronage, and incompetence
at the NYC Board of Elections, a last vestige of the City’s machine
politics: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/nyregion/nyc-voting-election-board.html
In 2018, the Board "mistakenly" purged hundred of thousands of
Brooklyn voters; in September, we saw the Board send out 100,000 unusable,
inaccurate ballots, printed by an upstate graphics firm with a no-bid
contract—and apparently, a no-oversight one as well: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/918382378/nyc-to-send-new-ballots-to-nearly-100-000-voters-after-printing-error
The Daily News points out that the “Board of Elections is fighting
nepotism with a memo,” which the Board apparently sees as a sufficient
response: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/city-board-elections-fights-nepotism-note-workers-article-1.1974768?barcprox=true&cid=bitly
Those of us who live in NYC need to tell
our City Councilors that we have had it with an inefficient and corrupt Board
of Elections: https://council.nyc.gov/districts/
RALLIES/GATHERINGS/TRAININGS/GROUP
ACTIONS/TWEETSTORMS
READING/WATCHING/LISTENING
U.S. sees highest
number of new COVID-19 cases in past two days - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-idUSKBN27A0JK
Don't even think
about intimidating voters. State laws and penalties - https://thedemlabs.org/2020/10/26/dont-even-think-about-intimidating-voters-laws-and-penalties-by-state/
Fairytale - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QGat1WxC14
The Love - Black Eyed Peas and Jennifer
Hudson - https://youtu.be/Jk7LPpY8pXM
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We can stay up
to date on Congress by checking out their schedules. a) The House
publishes a weekly schedule at The Weekly Leader (published and dated Friday)
as well as daily schedules at The Daily Leader. b) The Senate updates
their schedule daily at the Senate Floor Schedule
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